Consumer/Participant Direction

The State of South Carolina implemented a state-wide automated monitoring system whose real time data allows for monitoring & verification of the providers delivering services under the state's home and community-based services waivers. The toll-free number allows providers to check-in and check-out as they deliver services in a participant's home, while the database inferfaces with claims data to minimize fraudulent billing. The database has empowered waiver service recipients.

South Carolina developed a simplified provider agreement to make Medicaid enrollment easier for providers that normally do not provide Medicaid services. The State piloted the agreement in an Independence Plus Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services Waiver and in a Nursing Home Transition Grant. The six-item agreement contains only the minimum federal requirements for Medicaid providers and can allow Medicaid participants to receive services, equipment, etc. from non-traditional providers.

This guidebook is written to provide information about Minnesota’s Personal Care Assistance (PCA) program and the many options consumers have. The state strives for a consumer directed service model. Sections in this guidebook define services, help consumers develop skills and provide resources to help take more control of the important services that allow independent living. This guidebook is current as of September 2004.

This is the third in a series of newsletters produced at the Exchange to provide assistance to our CMS Real Systems Change grantees. This newsletter is produced biannually. Topics include: Physicians’ Role in Determining Level of Care, Nurse Practice Policies for Home and Community Living, ADRC Toolbox, Massachusetts Connecting the Dots, Making Medicaid Work in the 21st Century, Assessment Instruments, HCBS Quality Management Roles & Responsibilities, Family Caregiving, and Housing.

The Formative Evaluation of the Real Choice Systems Change Grants evaluates how the Systems Change grantees are progressing towards meeting their goals. The Formative Evaluation identifies problems faced by the grantees and ways that they deal with the problems. This document provides summary information about each of the FY2004 Grantees.

This inventory represents a select group of caregiver assessment measures specifically chosen for practical application by practitioners who work with family and informal caregivers of older persons and adults with disabilities. The purpose in compiling this inventory is to provide a compendium of caregiver assessment measures that is practice-oriented, practical and applicable, and which conceptually addresses the multidimensional aspects of the caregiving experience.

This monograph summarizes the history of caregiver assessment; considers the reasons for assessing family care; discusses what, whom, when & where to assess; illustrates areas to assess; highlights examples of existing tools; explores commonalities as well as differences in caregiver assessment instruments; points out areas of caregiver assessment that have been neglected; identifies best practice criteria to consider in designing & implementing assessments; & discusses training issues.

The CMS Systems Change conference was February 28-March 2, 2005. Presentations from the 2005 sessions are available in both PDF and text formats. Topics range from ideas on sustaining systems change, employment services, Medicaid, integrating quality, policy implications and barriers to providing services. Full titles are listed in the keywords section.

Self-determination is a growing force for persons with psychiatric disabilities. Advances in technology and services, the recognition that recovery is a reality, combined with the consumer movement motto, “nothing about us without us” all pave the way for persons with psychiatric disabilities to live self-determined lives. This NMHA report outlines many of the barriers to this movement and makes recommendations and next steps.

The Topeka Independent Living Center developed this list of Quality Indicators to be applied to all their consumer-directed programs.